It’s impossible to look at Anoro’s images and not be reminded of Henri Matisse and Paul Gauguin, both of whom famously reveled in vivid color and light and beguiled viewers with their curvaceous, flowing lines and forms. “Cutting into color,” Matisse once said, “reminds me of the sculptor’s direct carving.” This idea of ‘sculpting’ an image from pure color resonates with Anoro’s paintings, in which entire landscapes are re-envisioned as worlds built from patches of pigment--vermillion, turquoise, saffron, emerald, cream, azure. Variations in light are boldly conveyed with strokes of contrasting, even opposite colors-violet on yellow, red on green. But most of all, sparkling light animates the whole picture, infusing buildings, figures, trees, and everything in sight with the dynamic rhythms that have become Anoro’s signature. Each canvas evokes the splendor and energy of his native Catalunya in seductive compositions that exude a lifelong love of thesunny Mediterranean landscape.

Looking at Anoro’s paintings, we shouldn’t be surprised to learn that the artist describes his youth as a “Technicolor movie,” flush with colors and patterns from the fabric his dressmaker mother constantly brought into the house and subsequently draped on her customers. Anoro was destined to become an artist, drawing with passion from an early age and always fascinated with the beauty of his surroundings, particularly in the summer, when the “strong June light” permeated the landscape. However, not until later in life did he fully turn to painting. Once he stepped back into the realm of art, he says, “It felt as though I had been on a long journey at the end of which you find what you had already known: old forgotten friends. Nothing seemed strange in the world of painting. … It bought back the essence of shapes and colors of my childhood."

“Cutting into color,” Matisse once said, “reminds me of the sculptor’s direct carving.” This idea of ‘sculpting’ an image from pure color resonates with Anoro’s paintings, in which entire landscapes are re-envisioned as worlds built from patches of pigment--vermillion, turquoise, saffron, emerald, cream, azure. Variations in light are boldly conveyed with strokes of contrasting, even opposite colors-violet on yellow, red on green. But most of all, sparkling light animates the whole picture, infusing buildings, figures, trees, and everything in sight with the dynamic rhythms that have become Anoro’s signature.

It’s easy to see this childhood influence running throughout Anoro’s canvases, which, as much as they characterize the essential quality of Catalunya, also bend reality, crossing over into the territory of memory, fantasy, and dreams. Perhaps this-this childlike element, this ability to always perceive the world with wonder, with the energy and ingenuity of someone seeing it for the first time-helps account for the captivating nature of Anoro’s oeuvre. His paintings are generous artworks, offering us a portal into his particular vision of paradise: a place of dazzling color where the mood is carefree and bright, and where summer and youth are eternal.